The present invention relates to a device and method for mounting of large discrete components for use in surface mount assemblies such as printed circuit boards, thick and thin film substrate assemblies generally known as circuit boards. More particularly, the present invention relates to the mounting of transformers and other large discrete components on a surface mount assemblies designed for operation in the higher frequencies of the radio spectrum.
In the electronic industry, more and more circuit elements are combined in chips and other small devices which are mounted on boards or which form integral parts of the main circuit board to accomplish the function desired. Certain large discrete components, such as transformers, power capacitors and other devices still must be mounted on these boards for certain applications.
Traditionally, when these larger components have been mounted on printed circuit boards, the component is placed on the non-conductor side and the lead wires from the device have been merely fed through a hole in the board from the non-conducting side of the board and the lead soldered to the conductor pad as it exits on the far side of the board. In older practice, this was entirely satisfactory, but as the frequencies have gotten higher and higher, this type of mounting has tended to limit the frequency response or bandwidth of the circuit, and although devices of this type can be automatically inserted, as the numbers of the devices to be mounted on the boards have decreased, the use of automatic insertion equipment has also decreased so that many of these larger components that still have to be used are now hand inserted. Thus, the mounting of these devices not only has been unsatisfactory from a performance standpoint, but it has been an expensive and time consuming problem for many types of applications.